The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story
Wyden, Peter
B00K IN REVIEWS - "The Bay of Pigs: The Untold Story" the Communist threat induces military preparations; ergo, the Communist threat shouldn't and doesn't exist. The second difference is more elusive, though perhaps ultimately...
...Wyden pays almost no attention to this error in judgment, but instead blames the failure of the Bay of Pigs on the inability of the CIA to destroy Castro's air power...
...history at the University of Alabama and distinguished senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Southern History and Cuttta'e, such historical myths are not suffered gladly...
...The solution appeared to be a CIA-directed Free Cuba invasion brigade, which would hold a position on Cuban soil long enough for the invading Cuban exiles and sympathetic Cuban citizens to establish a counter government to Fidel Castro...
...Please renew my subscription for one year (twelve Issues--S12...
...91 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1980 35...
...ment...
...and on the other, by a determination to act with some finesse, i.e., not to send American forces into a foreign land to overthrow a revolutionary government...
...Obviously, then, Castro's Cuba Stephen Bryen is executive director of the Coalition for a Democratic Majority...
...There was little that could be done to help them--the B-26 is not an accurate bomber and was flying too high to be effective against anything but large formations...
...Deluxe accommodations I I Dept...
...Clearly the brigade had to survive on its own, or fail...
...In place of pedigree and privilege, Hamilton, as the nation's first Treasury Secretary, sought to infuse Changing Your Address...
...Address...
...Print your new address and mall this form to The American Spectator...
...Granted, Hamilton was intelligent and clever about money matters, but his fiscal policies lined the pockets of the rich...
...This "forward look," however, was constrained, on the one hand, by considerations of national security, which meant the new administration was not going to back independence movements, like Castro's, that were merely fronts for the Soviet Union...
...The second difference is more elusive, though perhaps ultimately more important...
...When writing to us about your subscription, always attach your address label or print your name and address exactly as they appear on your address label...
...forces...
...Given the many insurgency movements sponsored by the Russians today, and given the fact that those who oppose the insurgents will have to fight without full outside support, perhaps the Bay of Pigs should be remembered as an example less of our own ineptitude for directing the course of events in the Third World than of the Soviets' great aptitude for it...
...BEAT INFLATiONi ] Roam the world by freighter at savings ofl at least 50...
...In fact, his killing of Hamilton was less a tragedy than perhaps a meting out of just deserts...
...State...
...Regnery, in detail after detail, shows an acquaintance with ideas which lie beyond and beneath Anglo-American thought...
...Both Regnery and Morley are religious men...
...In Vietnam, Cambodia, and Lebanon they have exploited the fact, evidenced in Cuba, that relatively untrained guerrillas can master the Soviet equipment quickly and use it effectively...
...Instead of receiving the appreciative appraisal he surely deserves, this brilliant architect of our national foundation is too often reduced to playing the villain opposite Thomas Jefferson, the one dour and dispassionate, the other humane...
...ALEXANDER HAMILTON: A BIOGRAPHY ForrestMcDonald / Norton I $17.50 Alan L. Miller The shifting winds of historical interpretation have been especially unfair to Alexander Hamilton...
...It is true that some T-33 trainers and Sea Furies survived the air strikes and caused heavy damage to B-26 support missions and to the invading force, most particularly to two of the invasion vessels...
...Please attach the address label from the most recent Issue of your American Spectator in the space below...
...He recounts conversations with Gabriel Marcel and Karl Jaspers...
...Morley, for all his rich personal experiences, displays a less cosmopolitan mind...
...President Kennedy, himself a strong advocate of Algerian independence and a critic of the effort of France to impose a military solution on the FLN, could not in good conscience back the use of American armed forces in nonbelligerent countries...
...By relying on interviews with those directly and indirectly involved in the Bay of Pigs operation, Wyden has produced a marketable melodrama, in which, predictably, President Kennedy and the CIA are cast in less than complimentary roles...
...In this superb biography by Forrest McDonald, professor of...
...We had decided not to commit our aircraft, but even if we had, the invading force would still have had to have been reinforced...
...Thus, it is Jefferson, with his spirit of noblesse oblige, who qualifies for historical canonization, not Hamilton, the bastard who grew too fast, trading his modest past and humanity for the trappings of wealth and power...
...1-1 Payment enclosed [] Please bill me (please print) Name...
...he speaks proudly of new translations of Aquinas he has published...
...carrier Essex, or bombardment from the sea...
...However, the concentration of Russian artillery, fully unanticipated, turned the tide, a point 34 THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR JANUARY 1980 not lost on the Russians...
...This was the unanticipated factor, made possible in part by fortuitous deliveries of Soviet artillery...
...and, again, Kennedy had no intention of committing U.S...
...Zip...
...City...
...presented a problem...
...It is wrong to conclude it could not have done so, at least in its first phase--even with the limitations on action imposed by the President...
...Moreover, it is not a thorough book, because it fails to take up the important political and military questions raised by the Bay of Pigs...
...F101,163-09 Depot, Flushing, NY 11358 siderable contributions to our nation's history, McDonald contends that Hamilton's intent in creating a new financial system was, in part, to supplant a stagnant social order of plutocrats whose power and prestige rested less on ability than on inheritance...
...It should be remembered that Kennedy's administration was trying to appeal to the emerging nations of the world, to win them over as allies and encourage their economic development...
...Yet, beyond these general professions, Morley says almost nothing about religion, and what little he does say is garbled or eccentric (he refers at one point to the parable of the camel and the needle's eye as a "superstition...
...both, moreover, cite religion as a necessary foundation of freedom and social virtue...
...8ox 1060 Bloomington, Indiana 47402 (P/ease attach address label here...
...Far more important was {he heavy artillery concentration of Castro's forces against the invaders...
...Unfortunately, the brigade failed to take into account the heavy weapons of the Cuban armed forces...
...We are told, for instance, that Jefferson extolled the virtues of the common folk, while Hamilton referred to them as " a great beast...
...Date of change...
...yet why the President thought to do this he leaves unexplored, and the effects of the decision he blows out of proportion...
...From early on, it appears, the President was resolved to go ahead with the operation only if the United States kept a low profile, by allowing the CIA to carry the burden of the invasion, and by not committing American forces directly...
...Be sure to include the line of information above your name...
...IMPORTANT: Allow six weeks for addre~ change...
...and there was simply not enough powerful equipment on the ground to take out wellemplaced artillery...
...So much for theories--especially since friendship and respect, in this case at least, transcend them: Morley's book was published by Henry Regnery, whose courtesy is acknowledged, in the Foreword, by Felix Morley...
...Morley represents a noble tradition-the tradition of Cromwell and Milton, of Penn and Jefferson--but it is not the only Western tradition, nor even the most important one...
...SAVE YOUR GAS...
...And if this is not quite enough, it turns out that Aaron Burr was not really a scoundrel after all...
...THE BAY OF PIGS: THE UNTOLD STORY Peter Wyden / Simon & Schuster / $!2.95 Stephen Bryen I have never worked with Hollywood in mind, but if I did, I would be sorely tempted to write a book as Peter Wyden has...
...Regnery is no more of a theologian than Morley, yet the' subject is frequently on his mind...
...In short, Castro's forces were able to pin down and overwhelm the invasion force...
...But the air battle in this respect was not decisive, although it did indeed add to the cost of the invasion...
...Indeed, in the process of praising Hamilton's conAlan L. Miller is a free-lauce writwr whose reviews have appeared in National Review and Saturday Review...
...Besides, it is doubtful whether battle-ready forces could have been moved in quickly enough to save the brigade...
...THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR Circulation Department P.O...
...To do that would have required concentrated air strikes from the U.S...
...he recalls that Bach on his deathbed asked his family to sing "Before Thy Throne With This I Come...
...President Kennedy's decision to limit air strikes against key targets in Cuba, which reduced the initial punch of the invasion, is a major theme in Wyden's book...
Vol. 13 • January 1980 • No. 1
